Tennessee Grandma Jailed 5 Months After AI Accuses Her of Unvisited State Bank Fraud

The Case of the Wrongful Arrest

A Tennessee grandmother found herself in a harrowing situation when she was wrongfully arrested due to an error in facial recognition technology. Angela Lipps, 50, spent five months in jail after being flagged for bank fraud in a state she had never visited. This incident highlights the potential pitfalls of relying on advanced technology in law enforcement.

The Arrest and Extradition

Lipps was first arrested at her rental home in Tennessee in July. She was then extradited to Fargo, North Dakota — over 1,000 miles away from her home — at the end of October. According to a GoFundMe campaign, the West Fargo Police Department used “facial recognition technology” that mistakenly identified her as a suspect in a local fraud case.

Dave Zibolski, the chief of the Fargo Police Department, told CNN that the department took additional investigative steps independent of AI to assist in identification and confirm Lipps as a suspect. However, he later admitted that the West Fargo police’s system was “part of the issue” in Lipps’ wrongful arrest.

The Role of Clearview AI

The West Fargo Police Department informed CNN that they use Clearview AI, which “identified a potential suspect with similar features to Angela Lipps.” This misidentification led to Lipps’ arrest and subsequent extradition.

Lipps was also detained in Tennessee for three months because the Cass County Sheriff’s Office apparently neglected to tell North Dakota authorities that they had her extradition waiver, according to the outlet.

Lipps shared that her relocation to North Dakota was “the first time I had ever been on an airplane.” She added it was the first, and last, time she will ever step foot in the Peace Garden State.

The Aftermath

By that point, Lipps was “terrified and exhausted and humiliated,” she wrote on the GoFundMe, but the end still wasn’t in sight. Once the grandmother finally touched down in Fargo, she was provided with a lawyer, who obtained bank records proving that she had been in Tennessee during the time of the fraud the department linked her to.

“It took five minutes for the whole thing to fall apart. Five minutes,” Lipps wrote on the fundraiser.

On Dec. 23, just over five months since Lipps’ arrest, a Fargo detective, the state’s attorney and a judge “mutually agreed to dismiss the charges without prejudice to allow for further investigation,” Fargo police told the outlet.

Lipps was released on Christmas Eve — but was still trapped between a rock and a hard place. During the five months she was in custody, Lipps’ reputation was tarnished, her rental home was gone, and all of her belongings were seized when her storage unit bill went unpaid, she claimed in the GoFundMe.

“I am not the same woman I was. I don’t think I ever will be,” Lipps wrote.

The Fundraiser and Reactions

The fundraiser cleared $68,000 on Sunday. Zibolski assured that the Fargo Police Department will no longer be “sending or utilizing information” from West Fargo’s Clearview AI because “it’s their own system, we don’t know how it’s run or how it’s overseen.”

Zibolski added that all facial recognition identifications will also be shared with the department’s Investigation Division commander on a monthly basis, “so that we can keep a closer eye on this evolving technology.”

He admitted that the department should’ve submitted surveillance photos associated with the fraud cases to the relevant agencies trained in facial recognition.

In the wake of Lipps’ whirlwind detainment, the department “immediately began measures to address” their gaffe and is in the process of identifying other potential suspects in the fraud case.